Beefsteak tomatoes: buying the big slicer by layer count

A beefsteak is the tomato a burger is built around: wide, dense and sliced to cover the bun in one piece. King Quality Produce carries beefsteaks June through August, graded by layer count from 4x5 to 6x6 in 25 lb boxes. Here is how to read the sizes, hold the fruit, and understand what the 2025 end of the tomato suspension agreement did to prices.

What a beefsteak is and how KQP grades it

Beefsteak is a trade name for large slicing tomatoes with a flattened-globe shape and thick, meaty walls; UC Davis lists flattened globe among the shape types a tomato is judged against, next to round, globe and roma². They are grown to be eaten raw in slices, so size matters.

KQP grades beefsteaks by the trade's layer-count shorthand, 4x5, 5x5, 5x6 and 6x6, all in 25 lb boxes. The numbers traditionally describe how a layer packs out across and down the carton; smaller numbers mean bigger fruit. Markon's foodservice guide groups 6x6 as Large and 5x6, 5x5 and 4x5 as Extra Large and larger⁴; USDA's size table puts Large at 2 16/32 to 2 25/32 inches in diameter and Extra Large at 2 24/32 inches or more, with no upper limit³.

Where and when it grows

Beefsteaks are a warm-season item for us. KQP receives them June through August from our growers in Mexico, the American Southwest and California.

USDA's Economic Research Service reports that imports supplied 68.9 percent of the fresh tomatoes available in the United States in 2025, down from 71.7 percent in 2024, and that Mexico accounts for about 90 percent of those imports⁸. Domestic production rose about 7 percent in 2025 to 2.18 billion pounds⁸, with Florida and California the leading producers⁴.

How to buy beefsteaks: sizes, packs and receiving

Order by the slice. A 4x5 gives the widest slice for a burger or sandwich that has to cover the bread edge to edge; 5x5 and 5x6 handle most line work; 6x6 suits salads and dicing. Every size ships in a 25 lb box.

Tomatoes are not graded Fancy or Extra Fancy like cucumbers. USDA defines U.S. No. 1, U.S. Combination (at least 60 percent No. 1 by count), U.S. No. 2 and U.S. No. 3 on shape, smoothness, cleanness and freedom from decay, freezing injury and sunscald³. The same standards set six color stages: Green, Breakers (color on up to 10 percent of the surface), Turning (10 to 30 percent), Pink (30 to 60), Light Red (60 to 90) and Red (over 90)³. Tell us the stage you want on arrival: Light Red or Red to slice tomorrow, Pink to stage for the weekend.

At receiving, UC Davis's quality indices are the checklist: uniform color with no green shoulders, small smooth scars, no cracks, catfacing, zippering, sunscald or bruising, and flesh that yields to firm hand pressure without being soft². USDA's shipping-point tolerance for U.S. No. 1 allows 10 percent off-grade, including no more than 5 percent very serious damage and 1 percent soft or decayed³.

• Layer size matches the invoice
• Color stage matches the order
• Firm with slight give, never soft
• No green shoulders, cracks or stem-scar mold
• Box feels cool, not cold

Storage and shelf life

Tomatoes are chilling sensitive, and the walk-in ruins more beefsteaks than the truck does. UC Davis recommends 55 to 60°F for mature-green fruit, 50 to 55°F for Light Red fruit, and 44 to 50°F only for firm-ripe fruit and only for 3 to 5 days, all at 90 to 95 percent relative humidity². Chilling injury sets in below 50°F after about two weeks, or at 41°F in 6 to 8 days, and it is cumulative, showing later as blotchy color, softening, pitting and decay².

Mature-green fruit holds up to 14 days at 55°F before ripening; once firm-ripe, 8 to 10 days is typical in the optimum range². To ripen, hold at 65 to 70°F, ideally 68°F; above 77°F fruit turns more yellow than red and softens². Ripening tomatoes give off ethylene, so keep them away from lettuce and cucumbers², on a rack in a cool, dry room, stem up so the shoulders do not bruise⁴.

Nutrition by the numbers

USDA FoodData Central's year-round average for raw red tomatoes gives, per 100 g: 18 calories, 94.5 g water, 3.9 g carbohydrate, 1.2 g fiber, 2.6 g sugars, 237 mg potassium, 13.7 mg vitamin C, 7.9 µg vitamin K, 42 µg vitamin A (RAE), 15 µg folate and 2,573 µg lycopene¹; USDA publishes no separate beefsteak entry.

Against FDA's Daily Values of 90 mg for vitamin C, 4,700 mg for potassium and 120 µg for vitamin K⁵, 100 g of raw tomato supplies about 15 percent of a day's vitamin C, 5 percent of its potassium and 7 percent of its vitamin K. Tomatoes are mostly water, low in calories, a source of vitamin C and potassium, and a notable source of lycopene, the red carotenoid USDA measures at more than 2.5 mg per 100 g¹. Those are facts about the fruit, not medical claims.

The 2025 end of the tomato suspension agreement, and what it did to prices

Since 1996, fresh tomatoes from Mexico have entered the United States under suspension agreements that set minimum prices in exchange for suspending an antidumping case; agreements were signed in 1996, 2002, 2008, 2013 and 2019⁶. On April 14, 2025, the Commerce Department notified the Mexican signatories it would withdraw, and on July 14, 2025, it terminated the 2019 agreement and issued an antidumping duty order⁶. Published in the Federal Register on July 17, 2025, the order set a cash deposit rate of 17.09 percent for all Mexican exporters not individually named, with company-specific rates from 2.81 to 273.43 percent⁶.

The Associated Press reported the next day that Mexico supplies about 70 percent of the U.S. tomato market, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange, and that economists expected retail prices to rise roughly 8.5 percent, or 6 to 10 percent depending on a region's reliance on Mexican fruit⁷.

What happened was messier. USDA's April 2026 Vegetables and Pulses Outlook reports that grower prices fell 40 to 45 percent in 2025 against 2024, then jumped in early 2026, with January and February prices up 95 and 147 percent year over year⁸. Imports from Mexico ran about 15 percent below the prior year from August 2025 through February 2026, while Florida freezes in late January and early February 2026 cut domestic shipments⁸. ERS expected the duties to push prices up, but notes that retail advertised prices for vine-ripe tomatoes stayed below year-earlier levels even as shipping-point prices spiked⁸.

For a Los Angeles buyer: the duty is charged on Mexican fruit at the border, so a given week's origin now moves the price. KQP buys from its own growers on both sides of the line and will tell you where your box was grown.

In the kitchen: how Los Angeles uses beefsteaks

Burger stands and sandwich shops buy 4x5 and 5x5 for one reason: a single slice covers the bread. Salad kitchens and caprese plates take 5x6 and 6x6. Markets display them stem up in a single layer. Slice with a serrated knife, cut on the day you serve, keep ripening fruit out of the walk-in, and salt at service, since salt pulls water from the slice.

Beefsteaks are a summer item, and this week's counts change with the harvest. Call the office at (213) 627-7181 or email office@kingqualityproduce.com for today's sizes and pricing, and we will pack the layer count your line needs.